


Kindness Born, Kindness Bred

by sweetautumnwine



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Fairy Tale Retellings, Injury, Leopika Week 2019, M/M, Mild Blood, This could potentially be expanded so keep an eye out? lol, and the story is a bit different than what is traditionally told, in which kurapika is a lonesome beast, leorio is a beautiful doctor with a heart of gold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-02 14:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20277475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetautumnwine/pseuds/sweetautumnwine
Summary: Leorio receives a request for medical care at the isolated home of a wealthy family. When he arrives, his patient is not at all what he expected. For some reason, this doesn't matter. For some reason, he feels compelled to stay.





	Kindness Born, Kindness Bred

Leorio received the call near midnight.

The end of his shift was fast approaching, but when duty called, he wasn’t one to delay. Packing up his supplies and buttoning his overcoat across his chest, Leorio bestowed a sharp salute to Melody as she sorted through an endless pile of reports.

“Be careful,” she chimed, her soothing voice carrying a note of caution. “The snow’s set to start within the hour. It’ll be dangerous to travel after that.”

With one hand braced against the open elevator door, Leorio leaned out into the hall to purse his lips with petulance. “Your concern’s precious, really. Hey, if I’m with the patient long enough, maybe they’ll let me spend the night. They’re bound to have a spare room—or six.”

She raised her chin inquisitively. “Rich folks?”

His lips formed a tight line. “It’s the Zoldyck household.”

With furrowed brow, she tilted her head in thought. “I was sure the Zoldycks had left for vacation just a few nights ago. Surely they wouldn’t be back so soon.”

“Maybe someone stayed behind—to protect the goods, or something. All the tabloids seem to suggest they have a virtual trove of treasure on the property. They might as well have a swimming pool full of gold in their basement. Although, no one could know for sure.”

Melody dismissed him with a fluttery wave. “Perhaps you’ll find out tonight.”

He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what their situation is or who is injured or ill. Someone in that house needs medical assistance, and it sounded pretty urgent. That’s all that really matters to me.”

“Ever the professional,” she teased. Sobering, she smoothed her palms over the documents before her. “Just be careful, Dr. Paladiknight. House calls this late are never good news.”

“Goodnight, Melody,” Leorio said, stepping back into the body of the elevator. “Don’t spend all night worrying about me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Leorio.”

As the elevator doors slid shut, Leorio leaned against the back wall, letting his briefcase sink to the floor. He refused to let his attitude be affected by lack of sleep and foolish rumors. Still, he couldn’t deny his curiosity.

From the taxi ride to the abode until the moment Leorio stood upon the doorstep of the manor, his mind whirred with uncharacteristic imagination. Every ideation up to this point had proven true, stunning him into dumbed silence. A wrought iron gate stretched across the main drive, pointed turrets of white stone anchoring them before extending around the property in a thick, impassable wall. Within the barrier, the grounds were as lush as a jungle with tall lamplights carving a curved path toward the main building.

When Leorio finally reached the front door, he was shocked (and a bit embarrassed) to find himself somewhat winded. He quickly recovered, clearing his throat and rolling back his shoulders before raising a hand to knock.

His knuckles connected with the sturdy wood, eliciting a strong sound, but from the force of his knock, the door creaked inward. Bristling, Leorio squinted at the doorframe’s strike plate to find the screws warped and loosened, and the wood of the door itself appeared splintered.

Leorio’s hand dropped to his hip. He didn’t carry a gun (and never would), but a switchblade was sufficient for self-defense in most cases. Fingers wrapped securely around the handle, Leorio eased the door open with his shoulder, allowing moonlight to flood the entryway.

The place would be beautiful, but at the present moment, it appeared in a state of utter disarray. Tables had been toppled, tapestries torn and tile scraped and scuffed. In spite of the damage, the house was eerily silent.

Leorio swallowed around his fear and moved further into the house. He didn’t want to announce his presence in case, for some reason, some criminal had decided to make an enemy of him. Presenting himself as a sacrifice to some unknown assailant for some unclear reason wasn’t exactly the way Leorio wanted to die, after all.

Instead, he approached each hallway with caution, peering around the corners, his heart thudding so hard he could feel it in his throat. As he continued his circular approach toward the back of the entryway, he drew closer to the main staircase, nearing the landing. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the abnormal darkness of the home, he noted the strange markings leading from the door to the stairs, how some of the baluster spindles had been broken in two, their splintered middles hovering at uneven angles. The railing still held, but the damage suggested to Leorio that the intruder had ventured upstairs—and didn’t give a damn about how badly he wrecked the place in the process.

Steeling himself, Leorio compelled his foot to take the first step. When the wood groaned beneath his weight, he shut his eyes and grimaced, accepting his imminent demise. What came instead was a low, agonized groan from above, followed by a wet-sounding cough. Leorio’s eyes flashed open, doctoral instinct overriding primal fear.

“Doctor…?” The voice croaked from a room unseen, and another cough interrupted the uplift of the question. Without another moment of hesitation, Leorio bolted up the stairs, taking them several at a time, and darted into a room illuminated by faint candlelight.

His breath hitched. It was clear that this patient had been gravely wounded, but the cause of the injuries was not immediately clear. Scaling a wall, breaking down a door, and climbing a flight of stairs should have been impossible in such a state.

However, given that this patient was, inexplicably, a massive wolf, Leorio decided that typical logic and reasoning would be tossed out the window along with his other petty fears.

He dropped his briefcase beside the bed upon which the wolf had collapsed. “You called?”

The wolf managed a nod. “Didn’t think anyone would actually come. But I’m glad. This isn’t how I expected to die.”

Leorio wasn’t sure what to make of the comment, so he flipped open the locks of his case and rifled through the items. Squinting in the dark, he hastily rose to his feet, shut the door, and flicked on the overhead light, remaining with his back to the bed so he could collect his thoughts. The wolf groaned at the flash but said nothing in protest.

With a deep breath, Leorio steadied himself. “I’m not gonna lie. My experience with, uh, animals is pretty limited. But I’ll do my best.”

“If the human body is easier for you to work with, I will try to change back.”

After taking a moment to process these words, Leorio automatically shook his head. “Sounds like that would be painful, am I right?”

The wolf said nothing. As Leorio stared at them, awaiting a response, he noticed the brilliant color of their eyes—red like gemstones encasing fire—and wondered what they would look like when enraged.

“Right,” he said with a note of finality. “So let’s not deal any more damage to you if we can avoid it. Not sure who you got in a fight with, but I sure hope the other guy got it worse.”

To Leorio’s surprise, the wolf laughed. The sound wasn’t as unnerving as Leorio would have thought. It was actually quite warm and light, though the wheezing cough at its conclusion was worrisome. “Yes,” the wolf said once the cough had subsided. “He most certainly did.”

A sense of unease settled at the base of Leorio’s neck, but he slapped it away, disguising the motion as a means of massaging the tension genuinely growing there. “All right,” he said, snapping his latex gloves into place. “This won’t be quick or easy, and it’s definitely going to hurt. Just bear with me.”

“Safe to say this is your first time operating on a werewolf?” the wolf asked.

Leorio inhaled sharply through his nose before cracking a smile. “What made you guess?”

The wolf laughed again before laying its head atop a pile of pillows that, aside from a smattering of fresh blood, remained unscathed. “Do what you must, doctor. I can handle the pain.”

“Leorio,” he said, surprising himself. “Just use my name. This really lacks the whole professional atmosphere I’m used to, so let’s drop all formalities. Okay?”

“You may call me Kurapika,” the wolf said, closing their eyes. “My life is in your hands.”

With ample light, Leorio was able to identify the extent of their injuries. While they had lost quite a bit of blood, most of the wounds were superficial, and he was able to clean and bandage most without difficulty. By the time he had finished, he’d accumulated a pile of bloody towels (hesitantly borrowed from the adjoining bathroom), and his head dripped with sweat. Wiping an arm across his forehead, he reasoned he’d done what he could to treat his patient.

After collecting the dirtied tools and towels in a sanitary bag, Leorio rose to observe the wolf. Their breathing was shallow but even, and though their wounds were many in number, Leorio had no doubt that they would survive.

He flicked the lightswitch and blew out the candle before retrieving his briefcase and heading for the door. When he hesitated in the doorway and turned back, he saw that the wolf’s eyes had reopened, trapping him in plain sight.

“I understand that you must have other business and that this is unconventional,” the wolf said, delicately shifting their paws to better support their head, “but I do have one remaining request.”

Leorio nodded, resting a hand on the doorframe. “Name it.”

“Would you stay with me, Leorio? Just for the night.”

Leorio earnestly met the red glow of Kurapika’s eyes. Excuses blossomed in his throat, but they were barred exit at the front of his mouth. He swallowed and was left with impulse.

“Sure.” He sat his briefcase by the door before shutting it. Shrugging off his coat and loosening his tie, he circled around the bed to perch on the comforter. “What’s one night with a werewolf, anyway?”

Kurapika laughed, sinking further into the mattress. “I’m not sure what it is, Leorio…”

“Hmm?” Leorio turned to them, curiosity pinching his brow, but he realized too late that the wolf had already slipped back into unconsciousness. With an amused snort, Leorio folded his hands behind his head before reclining against the pillows by the headboard. “Goodnight, Kurapika. Try not to eat me in your sleep.”

He yawned, smacking his lips as his mouth closed, and in the darkness, he found it difficult to keep his eyes open any longer. When he stretched, his extremities brushed against coarse fur, but he didn’t recoil, just succumbed to sleep without any lingering hesitation.

* * *

In the morning, Leorio awoke to the irritation of golden morning sunlight falling upon his closed eyelids. He grunted, turning onto his side and throwing an arm over his face. As he did so, his hand brushed against something smooth and soft. Still groggy, he patted the area, searching for a tactile explanation, when his fingers met the familiar edge of gauze and medical tape.

With a start, Leorio sat up, jostling his bedfellow and ruffling the sheets. Where a wolf had occupied the majority of the bed when Leorio had fallen asleep, there now lay a very slender, very  _ naked _ blond individual who, until Leorio had so abruptly awoken, had been sound asleep.

A slow tilt of their head revealed furrowed brows, taut lips, and stunning, narrowed red eyes. Leorio automatically raised both hands in surrender, his gaze daring away from the individual’s face and promptly returning to those same features, cheeks flushed anew.

Rolling their eyes, Kurapika gingerly pulled the thin sheet over their lower half before shaking their head with a sigh. “Don’t act like this is the first time you’ve ever seen someone naked, Leorio. You’re a doctor.”

“I’ve seen other people naked, too,” Leorio blurted, still blinking away the sleep in his eyes. Dumbly, he added, “Not just patients.”

Cocking an eyebrow, Kurapika hummed. “Oh, well, congratulations.”

Leorio opened his mouth to offer a retort, but nothing came to mind. Instead, he shook off his irritation and stood to stretch. “Since you’re up, I should change your bandages.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

Frowning, Leorio crossed his arms over his chest. “Why not?”

“You’ve already fulfilled my requests. You treated me, and you stayed with me. You are free to leave, Leorio. Your work here is done.”

“Like hell it is.” Leorio rolled up his sleeves and stomped over to his briefcase, making a point to unlatch the locks as loudly as possible. “Pretty sure if you tried to leave this place, you’d have a high chance of falling into some gutter and dying a sad, lonely death. That doesn’t really jive with me, so you’re gonna have to put up with my care for a little while longer.”

The speech surprised both of them, though Leorio didn’t let his shock show. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into him. Sure, he had done plenty of  _ pro bono _ work in the past, but this felt different. Something about Kurapika compelled him to stay by their side. Leorio couldn’t tell if it was their tragic state the night before that resonated with him, or if their cocky attitude simply triggered some aggressive, instinctive response within him.

Whatever the reason, Leorio knew he wouldn’t accept Kurapika’s refusal, no matter how intent they were. Rising with a pile of fresh gauze and a roll of tape, Leorio raised his eyebrows, daring Kurapika to argue.

But they suddenly appeared tired and settled their face back onto the pillow, wincing with the motion. “It isn’t like I could stop you even if I wanted to.”

“You don’t want to?” Leorio teased.

Kurapika considered the inquiry for a moment. “No, I don’t. Why is that?”

“‘Cause you like me,” Leorio said, peeling away a bandage. When Kurapika turned a ferocious glare on him, Leorio simply shrugged. “Maybe because without me, you’ll just get yourself into more trouble.”

“Perhaps,” Kurapika said, closing their eyes. “I suppose there’s also the fact that you didn’t turn me in.”

“Why would I?”

The sigh Kurapika exhaled shook the entire bed. “Leorio, not only did I trespass onto this property, I also did quite a bit of damage to the grounds and the structure. I also more or less confessed to murder. There is also the fact that I am a  _ werewolf _ who led you here under false pretenses.”

“You said you needed medical attention,” Leorio argued, his voice surprisingly level. “That wasn’t a lie. You just didn’t reveal the entire truth.”

“Is that really any different?”

“It is,” Leorio said. “As for the other stuff, that’s really not that bad. I’ve treated patients who’ve done far worse, and they weren’t nearly as accommodating as you’ve been.”

Kurapika snorted. “You’re a strange one, Leorio.”

He smoothed a clean bandage over the last of the primary wounds, choosing not to outwardly marvel at the rapid speed at which Kurapika was healing. With a hand resting on their back, Leorio smiled. “I try to be.”

In the silence that followed, Leorio rose to wash his hands in the bathroom, and when he returned, Kurapika had returned to sleep yet again. Leorio imagined they would need to rest for some time before they were properly healed, so he did his best to move quietly into the hallway, easing the door shut behind him.

When he finally reached the kitchen, being careful to avoid the creaky board of the staircase, Leorio allowed himself to breathe. He scrounged up an infuriatingly healthy breakfast of grapefruit, papaya, and pomegranate seeds before seating himself at the marble countertop located on the center island.

Instead of digging in, Leorio placed his elbows on the counter and buried his face in his hands. After a few minutes, he reached into his pocket and withdrew his cell phone. His fingers moved automatically, and his mind barely had a chance to catch up before the recipient answered.

“Melody? Sorry to call so early. I wanted to let you know that… I won’t be in for a few days. Something came up. You can chew me out later.”

“Don’t worry, Leorio,” she said, sounding chipper even though dawn had only just passed. “I’ll make sure we get your shifts covered.”

Leorio sighed, feeling relief wash away the tension that had begun to knot in his shoulders. “You’re a lifesaver, Mel.”

“Just one thing before you go,” she said, her tone becoming solemn. “Does this somehow have anything to do with the house call from last night?”

The tension returned full-force, and Leorio couldn’t speak. He didn’t want to lie to her. Melody had never given him a reason to distrust her, after all. However, her unprecedented suspicion was unnerving.

He tapped a simple rhythm on the countertop to ground himself before speaking up, knowing that his hesitation would be perceived as strange. “No, Melody, I just really need a break. Gonna a take a quick trip down south. It’s been a while.”

Her subsequent silence was equally as odd, and Leorio felt sweat dripping down the back of his neck.

Without warning, Melody laughed, the sound as delightful as ever. “That sounds wonderful, Leorio. You absolutely deserve a break. You work hard, and we all know how much you care about your patients. We’ll survive a few days without you. Please, enjoy yourself. Take care.”

“Yeah,” Leorio said, forcing a smile. “You do the same.”

He lay the dark phone face-down on the countertop and cast his gaze heavenward. He wasn’t sure how long he would remain in this manor or what fate would have in store for him should the Zoldycks return during his stay. What he did know, however, was that Kurapika needed him, even if they wouldn’t dare to admit it. And that, for some reason or another, was enough.


End file.
